Turner's Camp on the Chifpewa Come all you jolly lumbermen That do a-lumbering go, Come listen to my story, Which I relate to you, Of the hardships and the dangers We undergo each day While working up in Turner's camp On the banks of the Chippewa. I started out from Saginaw, The weather being fair, And fetched up at eleven o'clock At a little place called Glare. The place it was so stumpy I thought it must be Hell; So I jumped aboard of Skanker Stage And rode into Isabelle. While bumping around Isabelle I thought I'd go to work Away up in the lumber woods, Where there's no time to shirk. So I started after dinner For to take a little tramp, And fetched up just at suppertime In Charlie Turner's camp. At five o'clock next morning The cook his horn did blow To call the boys to eat their hash So to the woods they'd go. At first they put me sawing, But found it did not pay; So when the boys from Quebec quit They sent me to load the dray. While loading of that damned old dray, Of course I was so green, Such piling up of top logs Before I'd never seen. The driver being in a hurry For to get over his route, It was lift a log and roll a log And cant a log about. When the last log was loaded To the river we did go; The way he made those horses climb You bet it was not slow. To see him driving on the road You'd swear that he was drunk, For he never was known to make a trip But he hung up on a stump. When the last load was on the dray To the shanty he would go, Where the boys would tell us of the things That happened years ago. Some would sing of Johnnie Troy And some of the Cumberland crew, But of all the songs, that I liked best Was of bold Jack Donohue. The boys were glad when Sunday came, That they might have a rest; Some would go a-visiting All dressed up in their best; Some would gather round the caboose, And more would grind the ax; Some would mend up their old clothes, And more their old shoepacks. It was on the first of April The birds began to sing; We began to break the rollways, So I thought it must be spring. But the boss came up from Saginaw And looked over the books And said, " My boys, you'll have to stay Two more weeks on Stoney Brook." Now the winter, it is over, Our work it is done. We will all go down to Saginaw And have a little fun. Some will go on Skanker Stage, And more will take the train. If you get there before I do, It's whoop-'er-up, Liza Jane. The song has been recalled by Charlie Griffin, of Sumner; Jim Joslen, of Glare; H. A. McCaslin, of Flint; Nelt Bailey, of Harrison; Tom Knight, of Houghton Lake; C. L. McKibben, of Beaverton; Alf Levely, of Edenville; and Peter Mahon, of Deerfield Center. This version is from Mrs. McDonald, of Mt. Pleasant, and L. M. Converse, of Buchanan. DT #840 Laws C23 From Earl Beck, Songs of the Michigan Lumberjacks SOF apr97
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